Meet Sparrow, an average man passing an average life…
Thursday, April 2
I debated whether to go for a walk this morning…My goal is to walk as often as I lifted, which was four times a week, as often as I could what with the odd hours I keep, but Friday mornings – usually prime weightlifting time – is turning out to be tuff to get a walk in…I mean, when it’s dark no one can see you and I’ve had walkers catch me by surprise often enuff to wonder whether it’s really safe enuff…Of course, it’s a small town and it’s not likely I’d get hit, but it only takes one whackjob not paying attention to ruin your day and besides, what if I ran into a bear???…I’d probably lose…There is bear spray, of course, and I could wear a reflective vest, but I dunno, that’s getting more geared up than I want to get for a walk…Ultimately I decided not to walk this morning, more because it was 13 degrees out than anything, tho with the days getting longer I should be able to walk before heading into the Veterans Service Office (VSO) on Fridays.
As it was, I did get in a walk while tending to matters at the VSO…I am not making that up…Jacob, from the bank down the street, called to ask if I could stop in and sign a couple of forms having to do with taking my name off the joint account The Ex and I had there…It’s two blocks and it was a sunny, cold winter, I mean spring, day so I walked over and after signing a couple of forms I could see no reason not to get a walk-in…The bank is at one end of downtown so I crossed the street and walked to the other end and I reckon there and back to the county building was about a mile, half of a usual walk but better than no walk at all.
In other banking news, that checkbook register app I download when The Ex left is proving its worth: it has balanced every time!!!…I am not making that up…Every couple of days I check and every couple of days what the bank says I have equals what the register says I have, an occurrence unprecedented in the memory of man…I mean, in the past, it might have balanced once a month or so, but to have it balance every time for two whole weeks well, that is newsworthy…For the past dozen years or so, of course, I didn’t have to worry about it, the Ex was a splendid financial manager and I didn’t have to worry about it, but that I have to I am committed to some semblance of financial management…I keep on it like a hawk, instantly adding purchases to the register as soon as they’re made and keeping an eye on the bank balance for the auto payments I set up so the power and other utilities don’t get shut off.
There were 20,000 emails and four voicemails waiting for me at the VSO…Recall, I took Wednesday off, so these things accumulate…19,989 of the emails were county emails discussing the coronavirus crisis…The other eleven were neither particularly relevant nor particularly interesting.
Three of the phone messages were from James, a buddy of mine I used to work with at Hotel A years ago when I first got to town…He did maintenance and was in the Air Force in Vietnam and also played bass for a band that made a couple of albums nobody bought and had a couple of gigs in Vegas…He said he wanted to sue the VA for malpractice…Oh hell, I can’t do that…First, tho, as we’ve learned in almost a year on this job, is not jump to conclusions: find out exactly what happened.
Well, James advised he’d been treated by the VA for liver cancer a few years ago…There were no follow-ups and the cancer came back with a vengeance and he’s being treated for it again…Crap…I really try to be of service, especially for a good bloke like James, but there really is not a whole lot I can do here…I mainly try to get vets treatment and benefits from the VA and he’s already being treated…I did turn him on to the patient advocate, tho, who might have some options for him, tho he might not…I added there were lawyers who sued the VA, too…This presumes everything he says is accurate…It may not be, which is another lesson you learn early on in the VSO racket and it’s not that the veteran is lying, either, it’s merely that he is either mistaken or, as likely as not, misinformed.
Sparrow’s Sleep Log: 1700 Thursday until 0130 Friday…8.5 hours for the day and an even-Steven 36.0 hours for the week.
The Diary of a Nobody is a novel. All elements are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Anything else is a coincidence.
It was inspired by the 19th-century British novel of the same name.
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